The post Argonus and the Gods of Stone Review – A new Argonaut first appeared on Killa Penguin.

Argonus and the Gods of Stone is an adventure game developed by Zojoi, the creators of 2014’s remake of Shadowgate. Set after famed Argonaut Jason has retired from adventuring, Argonus and the Gods of Stone is centered around the titular Argonus, son of Argus the shipwright. When the Argonauts’ ship, the Argo, is wrecked after an encounter with sirens, Argonus is saved by Athena and tasked with opposing a mysterious threat that’s turned his shipmates to stone. In the process, he encounters numerous gods and goddesses who require something of him and are often willing to grant something in return. This makes Argonus and the Gods of Stone a fantastic stroll through Greek mythology. However, the pacing becomes questionable toward the end, and the ending is so deeply unsatisfying that it feels like a large chunk of the story at the end is simply missing. Whether that’ll prove to be a dealbreaker or not will come down to whether you place more value on the journey or the destination.

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Argonus and the Gods of Stone review navigation (click to jump directly to section): Story review | Gameplay review | Visuals and music review

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Argonus meets some of the biggest Greek gods and goddesses on the isle

When Argonus is saved from the waters by Athena after the Argo is shipwrecked, some time has passed and many of his shipmates have already been petrified, and anyone familiar with Greek mythology will likely see where the story is going and why Athena factors into it so heavily right off the bat. Other gods and goddesses appear to Argonus through statues in their temples, but Athena is the only one who shows up in person to look out for him. She promises Argonus that some of his fellow Argonauts have survived the blight that’s turned many of their numbers to stone, and also that he’ll be provided a ship to leave the isle once he finds a way to stop the forces that have been turning everyone to stone.

Argus is an Argonaut from Greek mythology, but his son Argonus appears to have been created specifically for Argonus and the Gods of Stone. It’s impressive how well this new character has been fit into existing myths, with Argonus being written as a longtime friend of Jason (of Golden Fleece fame).

Argonus is primarily a cartographer and historian whose backstory is filled in during loading screens. In them, it becomes clear that while he’s a brave Argonaut in his own right, he’s not the traditional sword-swinging hero type.

Heroism is thrust upon him by the circumstances that have left all of the other Argonauts either petrified or soon to be. As such, he breathlessly documents his interactions with Athena, Hades, Poseidon, and others after they occur, filled with clear awe that they’d deign to speak to an ordinary mortal like him.

He’s not the most relatable character out there, but it’s easy to appreciate his earnestness in most situations and grow to like him as a result. His unwavering faith in the Greek gods and goddesses, however, can become slightly grating toward the end when it’s obvious that there’s some minor scheming afoot. Scheming is ubiquitous in Greek mythology, and this allows Argonus and the Gods of Stone‘s depictions to feel like a natural extension of how characters behave in other stories (in fact, one crucial event is borrowed directly from mythology). Argonus is just a little too unwilling to connect the dots, and it’s always slightly uncomfortable when the playable character is more naive than the player.

Argonus and the Gods of Stone‘s ending lacks the payoff its story deserves

I won’t be spoiling any plot points for obvious reasons, but suffice it to say that I found the story’s ending to be a letdown. Argonus and the Gods of Stone only implies the victory of its character in a quick, frustratingly unclear post-credits cutscene, and the circumstances at the end of the game are interesting enough to demand elaboration on the fate of Argonus and the method with which he overcomes his foe. It feels like you put in the legwork to reach an epic confrontation, only for the resolution to be a quick footnote that doesn’t match the effort required to reach that point.

This is a streamlined adventure game, but that’s not inherently a bad thing

Argonus and the Gods of Stone plays a bit like Draugen, though there’s more of an emphasis on the gameplay. Calling this an adventure game is technically accurate, then, but not very helpful given how different its mechanics are compared to those in most adventure games. For example, there are no manual item combinations; if you pick up an item that changes something in your inventory, it’ll automatically be combined with the relevant item. Another difference is that you can only use inventory items on parts of the environment that show a hollow hand icon, and only the correct item can be used. This streamlines the gameplay, but that’s a good thing when you factor in the isle that you’re given free rein to explore.

When you first awake on the beach, you have a single area to explore. Once you find some items and use them in the correct places, however, a second area is unlocked. This is how Argonus and the Gods of Stone expands, and you’ll eventually have a large amount of ground to comb for items whenever you find yourself missing something crucial.

Toward the end of the game, it becomes very easy to overlook and/or forget items, so the streamlined adventure game mechanics help Argonus and the Gods of Stone to avoid becoming too opaque about what you’re being asked to do.

One thing that I really appreciate is your movement speed. Argonus runs swiftly, allowing you to cover a lot of ground quickly. Many of the puzzles also make a surprising amount of sense or provide hints that keep you from becoming overwhelmed. The very end of the game stumbles slightly on both counts, though, with endgame areas being far too large.

You’re also left with no hints for how to proceed unless you’re playing with headphones and notice some easily missable whispering in the background. It turns out that you can’t finish the game unless you find and free every petrified Argonaut, and a couple of them are hidden quite well. There’s no in-game method for finding them outside of simply being observant, so you can find yourself wandering around the entire game world in search of a pesky missing Argonaut or two. Argonus and the Gods of Stone‘s busy art style doesn’t make finding things any easier, either.

I like the art and music in Argonus and the Gods of Stone for the most part

It’s difficult to tell what a game’s graphics will be like based on screenshots, but the grandiose first moments of Argonus and the Gods of Stone are likely to win you over. Almost everything is colored by a yellow/gray filter that evokes epic mythology movies of the past. Meanwhile, the loading screens and Argonus’ narrated journal entries show off some really interesting 2D art, and environments are constructed to be memorable and subtly lead you to items that can be picked up. There’s an abundance of foliage that can become fatiguing toward the end of the game when you’re looking for items that you’ve missed, though, and the color filter can make these long searches more so. It’s also common to believe that you’ve finally discovered something you’re missing, only to realize upon closer inspection that it’s sunlight bouncing off of a rock or a rain effect.

Argonus and the Gods of Stone features an appropriately epic soundtrack that’s orchestral/choral music done right. Here’s where things get strange, though—the game sports quality voice acting by Betsy Brantley, who narrates just about everything as Calliope, but none of the volume sliders apply to the voice acting. Sadly, it defaults to “so obnoxiously loud that everything else is drowned out even when turned all the way up,” so you have the option of turning the volume up and having every line of dialogue screamed at you or keeping the volume at a normal setting and being unable to hear most of the music. I really hope that this can be fixed in a patch. Either way, I highly recommend playing with headphones.

Story: 2/3 Gameplay: 2/3 Visuals: 1.5/2 Music: 1.5/2 ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ – 7/10
*Click here and scroll to the bottom for a detailed explanation of what these numbers mean

Argonus and the Gods of Stone Review Screenshots

*A key was provided for this Argonus and the Gods of Stone review. How long it’ll take to beat will vary based on how observant/lucky you are, but I’d estimate around 7-10 hours.